macgyv13

Hello everyone... my wife and I are planning a trip going from Prague to Nuremberg in late July/early August, and we've got about 5-6 days in Germany to spend before we arrive in Nuremberg. We'll be driving as we are picking up other people in Nuremberg and going to Austria after a few days.

We've done all of the major German cities in the central/eastern parts (Berlin, Dresden, Nuremberg, Munich) but haven't done any of the smaller cities other than Rothenburg, so we definitely want to focus on the smaller places this time around.

We enjoy old historical towns and strolling through old towns, people watching from cafes, taking in a brewery, etc. Not much for museums. We're in our 50s.

There are two routes that we could take:

To the north of Prague/Nuremberg:
- Czechia - Kutna Hora, Hradec Kralove
- Jelenia Gora (2 nights)
- Gorlitz (1 night)
- Erfurt (2 nights)
- Bamberg (2 nights)

To the south of Prague/Nuremberg:
- Kutna Hora
- Cesky Krumlov (1 night, been there once)
- Passau (1 night)
- Regensburg (2 nights)
- after that, we're open to ideas ... Wurzburg? Augsburg? Other towns in between Regensburg to Nuremberg? (3 nights)

If you could give advice which route would be better and suggest any changes, I'm all for it.
Thanks in advance.

lavandula

Hi macgyv13, both plans look good to me. If you did the first one you could add in Jena and Weimar. Weimar in particular is a big drawcard for German tourists but does not make the list for many non-Germans, oddly enough. However, if you do Weimar, even though it is quite a beautiful city and you could appreciate it for that alone, you should do some reading up on it before you go. It is the home of a lot of historical movements - the Weimar Republic which was between the wars, the Bauhaus movement in architecture, Classicism (the famous writers Goethe and Schiller had homes here); the painter Lukas Cranach the Younger had a house on the main square; there is an amazing historical library here, and a concentration camp (Buchenwald). Just understanding about some of these will help you 'get' the city better. Jena also is interesting; it has a nice student vibe but has enormous gaps due to the bombing in WWI. In communist times they built a round skyscraper which sits strangely with the rest of the town. I have not been there for some time, at least 10-11 years, so I don't know what they would have built recently to plug those gaps, but doubtless the profile of the town would have changed. There is still much to like. They are only about 20km apart so you could do one as a day trip from the other, and they are walkable, so it would be no hardship to do them by train, if that is a consideration for you.

If you did your second journey I would certainly pick Würzburg for the Residenz. It's a pretty town but the Residenz will take you some time to see (1-2 hours). If you have a car I would also consider Dinkelsbühl if you have seen Rothenburg. It's very similar but lesser known. My preference is for the first route though, and I can't comment on the Czech parts as I have only visited Prague and Brno before. Are you aiming to get back home via Frankfurt? If you make it that far north, you might consider a final night in Mainz after Würzburg.

Lavandula

macgyv13

Thanks, Lavandula - Weimar is a great idea and we've decided to incorporate that region into our plan as we'll be going the more northern route.
We're driving the whole time and no, not going through Frankfurt as we're going down into Austria for two weeks with our friends after our stay in Nuremberg.